New Official AMT Thread

[FrictionlessCoin]

So you mean, we don't have to modify the heat sinks? The way they are is fine?

The only recommendation I have is make sure there is some kind of airflow on the last card that has the little heatsinks....I used another fan to blow air on that because I was concerned that would blow out. But as ISAWHIM noted they get really hot. So it might not hurt to get some better heatsinks. I am looking into that and will make a recommendation once I find something that works.


That was the case on one of my miners which fried. That is the card that wont allow the system to power up. I have 5 others that can be plugged in but do not show up. I am hoping vainly that its a software issue but my guess is its not. This is one reason I am building the linux distro I am for these things. It could in all likelihood be a driver issue as the driver has been updated previously.

With my system,  I was able to see it hash for about a minute or so then it went dead.   That's 3 boards.  It went dead precisely when I had changed the pool locations.     When I run cgminer, it does not see any A1 chips even though the amt-setup command does show the presence of the boards.

So I am really unsure if it is also a software problem.  

That is an interesting bit of info, which supports my hypothesis. You switched pools THEN it went dead. I had a similar problem. Since the PI, backplane and daughtherboard still work, I am going to compile A1 support tonight for cgminer and see what happens. Right now I just have the pi plugged in by itself for purposes of getting the distro up and cgminer installed. After that I will plug all the hardware in (tonight if possible) and post results. Knock on wood and hope this was a software problem with SOME of the cards (I am only sure one card is dead). We are running a pretty old version of cgminer on the AMT/Bitmine systems. Updating to 4.3.3 MIGHT address some of this as the driver code is newer from what I saw on github.

Zombie miner project is a go...

Oh and if it works, I will post the image up for use. I am going just make it a general image for any hardware. Compiling support for various products. I would rather contribute to the community in that sense. While vendors are far more conservative with their firmware, its not always feasiable. But be aware this is at your own risk! I will test it best I can, make sure its stable. But any mods beyond my changes are on the user. I will post it in the software section later and link it here. Depending on how well things go tonight I may or may not get it up tonight. Either way tho it will happen this week. At the very least the distro will be up even if it does not fix our problem.

Oh... I thought it was just a coincindence!    This is a good lead then... switching the pool settings (other than AMT's default) kills the miners!    Not sure if this is deliberate,  but very devious indeed!

... wait... did you get it working?

where can I find the image?

[ISAWHIM]

Well, One card seems to have stopped responding...

Just after setting the target-temp from 60 to 65...

Have gone through the excruciating process of turning the unit on and off, about 50 times now, (only resulting in about 6 actual boots that don't get stuck at the "MONITOR" point... All with the same result... Only two modules detected...

Killing full power had no change. (Since cutting power at the switch still keeps power active on the +5v on many PSU's. For the USB device and backup power.)

In any event... It looks like it is software related. The delays are not great enough between detection's, and not long enough, or not even present, to "Write new data" when making changes. I don't think it even checks to see if the settings actually got saved. It just assumes they were a success. (IN my case, I don't think they were even finished writing, when I hit the reboot button. Thus, corrupting the write?)

Also the sequence for detection may be too fast... Not letting the cards get full power, before trying to detect them... Thus, failing at the monitor stage?

[FrictionlessCoin]

I was wondering if part of the problem was the way they put on the thermal adhesive, perhaps it needed to be a 2 part epoxy, but only used one part?

I wonder if something like this would work better, 2 part adhesive:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Arctic-Silver-AATA-5G-Alumina-Adhesive-Thermal-Epoxy-5g-/170708546413?pt=US_Thermal_Compounds_Supplies&hash=item27bf05b36d

Even still, not sure if that would be better than thermal grease:

Arctic Alumina Adhesive is a pure electrical insulator, neither electrically conductive nor capacitive.

Maybe cut something like this up?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/150x60x25mm-High-Quality-Aluminum-Heat-Sink-Cooling-for-LED-Power-Memory-Chip-IC-/360744193465?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item53fe078db9

The radio shack variety silicone based stuff works just fine. In the end though it likely is not that at all. There are clear electrical issues with the hardware. I am taking a look at the broken cards again and checking to see if there is any soldering issues or anything out of place that could have caused a short or a failure. I haven't had time to look at them. I am essentially sitting on two bricks I might not get a replacement for. I reached out to AMT to just replace these. Still have not heard back. Altho they could just show up on my door step at some point too unannounced. I guess we will see. The lawsuit probably has them on full gag so they may not even be able to talk to individual customers either. Least thats my thought.

I pulled out the heat sink from one of my broken boards.   The thermal appears to be spread out too much across the entire exposed base,  it really is unclear if there is any thermal connectivity with the heat sink.

I'm going to try some thermal paste that I have,  its a different kind,  it's white in color and keeps its form even with heat.  The usual silver kind normally starts to flow when heated,  and this likely is not want you want since if the board is positioned vertically, the paste will flow out of position.   

I'll see if I can acquire those heat sinks that you show.  Did you check the measurements to see if it'll fit?

[FrictionlessCoin]

Well, One card seems to have stopped responding...

Just after setting the target-temp from 60 to 65...

Have gone through the excruciating process of turning the unit on and off, about 50 times now, (only resulting in about 6 actual boots that don't get stuck at the "MONITOR" point... All with the same result... Only two modules detected...

Killing full power had no change. (Since cutting power at the switch still keeps power active on the +5v on many PSU's. For the USB device and backup power.)

In any event... It looks like it is software related. The delays are not great enough between detection's, and not long enough, or not even present, to "Write new data" when making changes. I don't think it even checks to see if the settings actually got saved. It just assumes they were a success. (IN my case, I don't think they were even finished writing, when I hit the reboot button. Thus, corrupting the write?)

Also the sequence for detection may be too fast... Not letting the cards get full power, before trying to detect them... Thus, failing at the monitor stage?

I heard that bitmine has a new image,  anyone want to try that image to see it it'll work?

Note:  I have a Bitmine backplane on my system.  It did work for a couple of minutes until I reset the pool settings.   Bitmine looks like is 100% compatible at the backplane level, therefore it probably is also true of the software.

Anyone know if the daughter board that is connect to the rhaspberry pi can be sourced elsewhere?  Is this a standard component?

[regtable69]

I may try my soon, are there any basic instructions for changing the pool? I was able to log onto the http panel before, maybe I can just change it in there... I have my boards in a case, so I would imagine I have to take the cage out and mount it the other way.

Yea that would be best. You could do it via the web console. Just be aware of the risk with that. Frictionless and I lost boards changing pools. Which is what makes me wonder if it is actually a software problem that can be fixed. If I fix it using software I will post detailed instructions on how to apply the firmware. I am sure those of us with giant paperweights could do with some good news in this. I know I can lol.

one of the rigs i have had a dabble with lost a chip due to changing the vridiff in a pool from 512 to 128 as soon as we clicked change diff it went poop. i would believe it could be due to the voltages as the card drops into free spool the volts rise say from 0.84-0.86 . my advice is putty into it type killall cgminer than go back to the web interface. then you should be safe as its not a hard hang

[FrictionlessCoin]

I may try my soon, are there any basic instructions for changing the pool? I was able to log onto the http panel before, maybe I can just change it in there... I have my boards in a case, so I would imagine I have to take the cage out and mount it the other way.

Yea that would be best. You could do it via the web console. Just be aware of the risk with that. Frictionless and I lost boards changing pools. Which is what makes me wonder if it is actually a software problem that can be fixed. If I fix it using software I will post detailed instructions on how to apply the firmware. I am sure those of us with giant paperweights could do with some good news in this. I know I can lol.

one of the rigs i have had a dabble with lost a chip due to changing the vridiff in a pool from 512 to 128 as soon as we clicked change diff it went poop. i would believe it could be due to the voltages as the card drops into free spool the volts rise say from 0.84-0.86 . my advice is putty into it type killall cgminer than go back to the web interface. then you should be safe as its not a hard hang

Can anyone post the cgiminer.conf file?  Could it be that the web interface is corrupting the cgminer.conf file?

[regtable69]

I may try my soon, are there any basic instructions for changing the pool? I was able to log onto the http panel before, maybe I can just change it in there... I have my boards in a case, so I would imagine I have to take the cage out and mount it the other way.

Yea that would be best. You could do it via the web console. Just be aware of the risk with that. Frictionless and I lost boards changing pools. Which is what makes me wonder if it is actually a software problem that can be fixed. If I fix it using software I will post detailed instructions on how to apply the firmware. I am sure those of us with giant paperweights could do with some good news in this. I know I can lol.

one of the rigs i have had a dabble with lost a chip due to changing the vridiff in a pool from 512 to 128 as soon as we clicked change diff it went poop. i would believe it could be due to the voltages as the card drops into free spool the volts rise say from 0.84-0.86 . my advice is putty into it type killall cgminer than go back to the web interface. then you should be safe as its not a hard hang

Can anyone post the cgiminer.conf file?  Could it be that the web interface is corrupting the cgminer.conf file?

had you changed the api look up in the web interface? or possibly disabled dhcp server which gives you an elaborate brick! trust me i did that 5 mins into seting up. click click click ohhhhh shizzzz! oh shiz what have i done! get the hammer out

[opieum2]

This is Josh cell phone number:
<snip>

I know AMT has pissed alot of people off, but posting his cell is pretty poor form. Also opens you up to him suing you for cyberbullying and all that stuff. Just sayin. Better to not open a nasty door into this. I am sure there are some people with his cell number, but it also does not hurt to at least maintain SOME bit of civility. You only damage everyone's chances at getting anything by doing this. Not like his number was publicly listed for everyone to see somewhere else. How did you get it in the first place? Did you get his permission to post it? Just consider the consequences to yourself with that action.

I, too, have his number, but never listed it.

stealing from people is poor and low..

Yes but the difference is they can retaliate at you with legal action. Don't be that guy the news says AMT sues customer for leaking CEO's personal details. I mean its your call. I'm just saying, it could backfire on you is all.

[opieum2]

Well, One card seems to have stopped responding...

Just after setting the target-temp from 60 to 65...

Have gone through the excruciating process of turning the unit on and off, about 50 times now, (only resulting in about 6 actual boots that don't get stuck at the "MONITOR" point... All with the same result... Only two modules detected...

Killing full power had no change. (Since cutting power at the switch still keeps power active on the +5v on many PSU's. For the USB device and backup power.)

In any event... It looks like it is software related. The delays are not great enough between detection's, and not long enough, or not even present, to "Write new data" when making changes. I don't think it even checks to see if the settings actually got saved. It just assumes they were a success. (IN my case, I don't think they were even finished writing, when I hit the reboot button. Thus, corrupting the write?)

Also the sequence for detection may be too fast... Not letting the cards get full power, before trying to detect them... Thus, failing at the monitor stage?

I heard that bitmine has a new image,  anyone want to try that image to see it it'll work?

Note:  I have a Bitmine backplane on my system.  It did work for a couple of minutes until I reset the pool settings.   Bitmine looks like is 100% compatible at the backplane level, therefore it probably is also true of the software.

Anyone know if the daughter board that is connect to the rhaspberry pi can be sourced elsewhere?  Is this a standard component?

FYI I had no luck with bitmines image.  Doesn't mean it wont work...I just didn't spend enough time trying to make it work. Its just an updated version of the same yocto using a later version of cgminer. No screen or any of that stuff. I will be adding that to my image. Im adding screen and maybe some kind of admin interface like webmin. Not sure yet which route i am going with the web side if at all.

[opieum2]

And as I typed this message another card failed. I am down to 3 cards from 10......Hopefully this linux solution works on the already dead boards....

[ladi4ever]

I would be happy if AMT buys a 1.6 TH/s cointerra and ships it to us.

Right now a TerraMiner IV 1.6 TH/s Bitcoin Miner cost $3,499 and is IMMEDIATELY AVAILABLE.

Yeah, it is like a $2,500 loss but its better than nothing!

Man,  even those KNC folks are screwed.  They paid $12,000 for a 3TH/s system.   Two Cointerra systems would cost only $7,000 and you'll have 3.2 TH/s of hashing!

I agree at this point they could be getting out of this mess just by buying cheaper rigs and send to us with even higher speed, and I would be satisfied and not with the 2 RIGs that 1 worked for 1 hour and the other one has part missing. They are not very smart people, both of them!

[ladi4ever]

So you mean, we don't have to modify the heat sinks? The way they are is fine?

The only recommendation I have is make sure there is some kind of airflow on the last card that has the little heatsinks....I used another fan to blow air on that because I was concerned that would blow out. But as ISAWHIM noted they get really hot. So it might not hurt to get some better heatsinks. I am looking into that and will make a recommendation once I find something that works.


That was the case on one of my miners which fried. That is the card that wont allow the system to power up. I have 5 others that can be plugged in but do not show up. I am hoping vainly that its a software issue but my guess is its not. This is one reason I am building the linux distro I am for these things. It could in all likelihood be a driver issue as the driver has been updated previously.

With my system,  I was able to see it hash for about a minute or so then it went dead.   That's 3 boards.  It went dead precisely when I had changed the pool locations.     When I run cgminer, it does not see any A1 chips even though the amt-setup command does show the presence of the boards.

So I am really unsure if it is also a software problem.  

Same here, I was able to mine with one rig for couple minutes then it went dead, the other rig had parts missing.

[tonyca]

Dear AMT customers/clients/followers.

We write to inform you that due to the pending class action, Lenell et al. v. Advanced Mining Technology, Inc., No. 14-cv-01924 (E.D.Pa.), we will no longer be communicating on the Bitcoin Talk Forum per the advice of our attorneys. We are still working towards resolving all outstanding customer complaints in conjunction with our counsel. Please note that customers may still contact us directly to  discuss issues with their orders, but we will be unable to use the forum as a means of communication regarding specific orders or the pending litigation. You may contact us by phone at 855-866-6463 or by email at josh@advancedminers.com .  We will still handle individual communications regarding orders within the ordinary course of business.

AMT_miners,

 I tried contact you since last Friday by email and called you guys. no response at all.what is the point of this ask us send you email and call you. it's ridiculous.

Please response to my emails for options regarding my 2 miners.

[opieum2]

Dear AMT customers/clients/followers.

We write to inform you that due to the pending class action, Lenell et al. v. Advanced Mining Technology, Inc., No. 14-cv-01924 (E.D.Pa.), we will no longer be communicating on the Bitcoin Talk Forum per the advice of our attorneys. We are still working towards resolving all outstanding customer complaints in conjunction with our counsel. Please note that customers may still contact us directly to  discuss issues with their orders, but we will be unable to use the forum as a means of communication regarding specific orders or the pending litigation. You may contact us by phone at 855-866-6463 or by email at josh@advancedminers.com .  We will still handle individual communications regarding orders within the ordinary course of business.

AMT_miners,

 I tried contact you since last Friday by email and called you guys. no response at all.what is the point of this ask us send you email and call you. it's ridiculous.

Please response to my emails for options regarding my 2 miners.

They likely got barred from making any replies at all.

[ISAWHIM]

Found the source of one issue on the card that fails to initialize...

Chip #5, (#1 being the closest to the power-connection), was not surface-flush. Thus, it overheated, tarnishing the copper heat-sink. Even with the card not operating (not hashing), it was glowing bright white and seared my finger.

Code:

Power side <--
         1           8
         2 3 4 (5) 6 7

Left unattended, with the rest of the cards running, it would surely have "popped", and heated to the point of destroying the bond with the copper-heat-sink.

This same exact chip location...


All the neighboring components above, were also abnormally hot... I assume feeding voltage into the unit, or attempting to try to limit the amperage or internal short-circuit on the chip.

The same chip that "popped" on RikKhaos's miner... But I assume, if he inspects it, he will find that the chip has a slight gap on one corner, lifted off the PCB. That non-flush mounting causes all the heat to distribute to the smaller heat-sink. Which, obviously, does not have the capacity to handle that level of heat dissipation. (Even if it did, it would have only prolonged the inevitable failure of that chip.)

In conclusion, the chips are not being set-up adequately. Either there is something like an obstruction, causing it to not pull-down in the reflow process, or there are contaminants in the reflow itself, or the reflow process is not getting complete. (Thus, being stopped before this specific component, or other components have had time to become "pulled-down", by the process of the liquefied surface-tension of the reflow solder.)

I will be pulling the heat-sink from this board, to use on another board, which may or may not work. This board will be sent-back to be reworked and tested. As I am not sure if the failure has caused other damage. Since it was heating-up, even without the card "hashing". No traces look seared or tarnished, so I am confident that a simple rework of that chip, to make it flush, would alleviate the issue. I would assume the initialization was not occurring, because of the internal detection of the chips temperature. Thus, causing the whole board to shut-down, out of protection.

I would rework it myself, however, I fear that the bond to the heat-sink may be compromised in the process. As a similar situation has been recorded.

I assume his heat-sink would not have fallen-off in normal operation, and thus, it was not the heat-sink causing the overheat, is was the overheating which caused the heat-sink to fall off. (In my opinion, looking at his photograph, and having experienced a nearly similar situation directly myself. Catching it before it had gotten to that point.)

Still, the V3.0.A series of the boards, otherwise seems robust and flawless, with the boards I have tested thus far.

I have prepared a specific report for this board, but will not RMA it, until I have tested the others, completely.

Still have only 3 cards up and running, at the moment... (Due to testing and lack of another free PSU at the moment.) They are operating at roughly 193GHs each, operating outside in 81F ambient air, without issues. Other than the one bad mounted chip, on that one card, mentioned above.

580GHs @ 760w total using only 6 fans for cooling the three cards inside a ducted cardboard shroud.
Rougly $2.92 a day, to run them, with a mining-reward of about $14.53 USD a day, leaving about $11.61 a day, for profit.
$11.61 a day * 30 = $348.30 USD a month. (Would be 2x that, if I had 6x cards running.)
That is just shy of 1 BTC a month. (2 BTC with 6x cards running.)

[opieum2]

Thanks ISAWHIM. On the software side I am currently compiling cgminer 4.3.3 for use. I will have a report likley tommorrow afternoon or later this evening depending on if it works on the first try. If it brings back the hardware, then its a huge win.

ISAWHIM, You think that the issues with the cards shutting down then are software, hardware or a combination of both?

[ISAWHIM]

Thanks ISAWHIM. On the software side I am currently compiling cgminer 4.3.3 for use. I will have a report likley tommorrow afternoon or later this evening depending on if it works on the first try. If it brings back the hardware, then its a huge win.

ISAWHIM, You think that the issues with the cards shutting down then are software, hardware or a combination of both?

In my case, I assume it was the hardware for the most part. However, the software didn't quite know how to handle the "issue".

All except the issue with the starting, booting and resetting, which, for me, is still spotty.

There needs to be a longer delay between booting stages. It just pukes-out stage after stage, and obviously, some components are not actually ready, when it attempts to talk to them. (Namely the cards and the network.)

This, again, is where a multi-stage delayed-boot sequence would help. Allowing the devices to become powered-up and ready, before attempting to communicate with them.

The "reboot" in the settings, for the password-change and "target temps" (Not sure why those are both on the same page.), and also on the setup for the pools, is buggy as hell. (It is also annoying that it defaults to "balanced load" and not "failover". You do NOT want to run in balanced-mode, unless you are connecting to three separate servers, for some reason. You want failover, so when one pool fails, it attempts to go to the next one.) However, I do not change pools often, so that is just an annoying thing.

When changing the servers... "Save and reboot", does not actually reboot... it soft-boots... However, mine ends-up showing hashing like 12GHs and 45GHs per card after that... until I physically reboot by killing power to the PSU, since no-one has figured out how to turn off the unit unless you unplug the whole unit.

My biggest issue is that the miner does not connect to http connections for solomining. It demands "stratum+tcp" connections only. (Pools)

I was wrong before, about it hashing, but not reporting hashing... It does "get work", it just doesn't hash with it?!? Not sure how that got glitched. Pools are the worst thing to mine into, unless you have no choice, due to difficulty being high. However, coins I want to mine do not have high diffs, and pools are all in foreign-lands. (Too far, so lots of thrown-out share credits and valid work.)

If you could add some start-up delays between the start-up sequences... I am about 90% sure that will help resolve a lot of the issues where it simply gets "stuck" on the "Monitor" stage. Which is the last stage just before the network connects. (Or it is getting stuck on the network stage, and thus, does not refresh the screen, making you think it is stuck on the "Monitor" stage.)

[ISAWHIM]

Anyone know if the board will still initialize for operation, if just a single chip was removed?

Since I suspect this is alive enough to let it know that it shouldn't run, or it has just shorted from thermal-runoff, and just failed the initialization process. Thus, removing the short... or removing the "limiting failure broadcasting"... May allow the rest of the good chips to operate, until I can get it fixed, or just ignore it.

[FrictionlessCoin]

Thanks ISAWHIM. On the software side I am currently compiling cgminer 4.3.3 for use. I will have a report likley tommorrow afternoon or later this evening depending on if it works on the first try. If it brings back the hardware, then its a huge win.

ISAWHIM, You think that the issues with the cards shutting down then are software, hardware or a combination of both?

In my case, I assume it was the hardware for the most part. However, the software didn't quite know how to handle the "issue".

All except the issue with the starting, booting and resetting, which, for me, is still spotty.

There needs to be a longer delay between booting stages. It just pukes-out stage after stage, and obviously, some components are not actually ready, when it attempts to talk to them. (Namely the cards and the network.)

This, again, is where a multi-stage delayed-boot sequence would help. Allowing the devices to become powered-up and ready, before attempting to communicate with them.

The "reboot" in the settings, for the password-change and "target temps" (Not sure why those are both on the same page.), and also on the setup for the pools, is buggy as hell. (It is also annoying that it defaults to "balanced load" and not "failover". You do NOT want to run in balanced-mode, unless you are connecting to three separate servers, for some reason. You want failover, so when one pool fails, it attempts to go to the next one.) However, I do not change pools often, so that is just an annoying thing.

When changing the servers... "Save and reboot", does not actually reboot... it soft-boots... However, mine ends-up showing hashing like 12GHs and 45GHs per card after that... until I physically reboot by killing power to the PSU, since no-one has figured out how to turn off the unit unless you unplug the whole unit.

My biggest issue is that the miner does not connect to http connections for solomining. It demands "stratum+tcp" connections only. (Pools)

I was wrong before, about it hashing, but not reporting hashing... It does "get work", it just doesn't hash with it?!? Not sure how that got glitched. Pools are the worst thing to mine into, unless you have no choice, due to difficulty being high. However, coins I want to mine do not have high diffs, and pools are all in foreign-lands. (Too far, so lots of thrown-out share credits and valid work.)

If you could add some start-up delays between the start-up sequences... I am about 90% sure that will help resolve a lot of the issues where it simply gets "stuck" on the "Monitor" stage. Which is the last stage just before the network connects. (Or it is getting stuck on the network stage, and thus, does not refresh the screen, making you think it is stuck on the "Monitor" stage.)

Can't the restart process be performed manually?

What are the software components that need to be started?  BTW, where the hell is the manual???

What needs to be started prior to CGMiner?  What is amt-setup for?

[rik_khaos]

From what I see just based on the small heatsinks of mine that have discolored is that it isn't just a issue with the chip in the 5 position.

On one of the boards that never hashed I have a completely discolored heatsink  in the number three position. On other board of mine that was hashing I also have that discoloration in the chip #3 position.
 issues that they have claimed to have faced ( which I do think is true, personally.)

So depending on the line it was worked on there could be at least from what was posted here a 2/5 failure rate if the boards were left running, your rig my vary depending on how many cards you got off a defective line. That is assuming only two lines had issues. Now that still doesn't speak to the issue of the other cards not being detected at all.

I did e-mail josh tonight and will be giving him a call tomorrow or the day after. We'll see if he can talk. If he says he can't I'll respect that and send any further communication to his lawyer.

I do believe that I'm going to send my equipment that needs to be RMAed to Josh care of his lawfirm and send it directly to their address with printed pictures I took of the damage. As I got a unit with manufacturing issues then I am due a new working unit and would be happy to talk to josh or his lawyers on how they would like to go about that.